


Flip of a coin

by ShabbyChicGeek3



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/M, Fear, Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-25
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2018-02-22 15:10:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2512142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShabbyChicGeek3/pseuds/ShabbyChicGeek3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on shots from the Age of Ultron trailer. A story chronicling how relationships can change. Showing how Natasha can go from being terrified of the Hulk, to holding his hand to calm him down. How Tony Stark can go from being close friends with Bruce, to building a suit of armor to fight the Hulk. I really like this story so far, so please check it out! My first story on here, so if I did something wrong with the way I posted or tagged this, let me know.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

This is going to be a story about the Black Widow, and Tony Stark. It is based off of the scenes in the new Age of Ultron trailer, where Natasha is holding the hulk’s hand, to calm him down, though in the Avengers she was clearly terrified of the Hulk. And it is based on the scenes of Tony, and how he was basically friends with Hulk, encouraged Banned to let him out more, but now he has had a Hulk Suit built, and is prepared to fight his friend. I just thought it would be interesting to see how Natasha has gone from being terrified of the monster, to trying to help him, and vice versa for Tony. I really hope you enjoy this story, I don’t care if it will be as popular as my other trailer based fic (Winter Soldier) because I know I will have a lot of fun writing it :)  
Note- I will probably be alternating each chapter so one will star Nat, the next Tony, then back to Nat, then Tony, ect, just because otherwise each chapter would be crazy long.  
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Natasha- Part One

Natasha was more used to having nightmares than she was to having dreams. They were a part of her, forcing the assassin to relive parts of her past she would rather forget, reminding her of every drop of blood in her ledger. Every person she owed her life to, every life she had taken. But these new nightmares, the ones that had plagued her ever since New York, they were different. They felt so real half the time she didn’t know she was dreaming, They were just as bad as her dreams of the red room, but she had buried those memories so deeply inside of her that now red room dreams were rare. But the ones about New York……They came to visit her almost nightly.

Maybe they were not the ones she should be expected to have on a nightly basis….. She did dream about the ruined city of New York falling apart around her, about having to fly the plane through the storm Thor had created, secretly terrified lightning was about to strike the aircraft out of the sky. Too many times she dreamt of aliens swarming over the entire city, taking one out only to have two more take it’s place. She dreamed of Clint being brainwashed by an evil demigod, prepared to kill her, betraying her darkest secrets without hesitation, knowing the man she loved might be gone forever and did not care he was betraying her in every possible way.

She had had all of these nightmares and more, but still, this was the one that came to her every single night. The one she didn’t even realize was happening right now. The room was dark, all she could make out in the dying light were pipes, generators, she was in the depths of a hellicarrier. Natasha’s breathing was shallow, she was trying to be as quiet as possible, because she knew her life depended on it. Every part of her body was tensed, she could hear nothing but the rapid pounding of her heart beat filling her ears. 

In the dream, she was not sure who was chasing her. After all, there were so many options. It could be someone from the red room, the KGB, the family or friend of someone she had killed, who was now looking for revenge. So many different people wanted the Black Widow dead, the options were infinite. Then, she heard a rumbling roar in the distance. He was coming. 

The Black Widow took out her gun, and darted deeper into the shadows, letting the dark embrace her as she had always done through so much of her life. She had relied on it so much to hide her from the monsters of her past, in a way it had protected her so many times. But not this time. This time the monster ventured into the dark after Natasha, and suddenly, began chasing her.

All Tasha could see was a massive lumbering thing just behind her. It just suddenly appeared, and then she was running for her life. She caught flashes of green in her peripheral vision, and though she shot off her gun a few times, trying to buy herself more time, it did nothing to slow the monster intent on destroying her. She did her best to avoid it, dredging up every ounce of training she had ever received, but it just wasn’t enough.

A giant hand wrapped itself around her ankle, Natasha’s footing was yanked out from beneath her. “No, NO!” She cried out, dropping her gun as she scrambled for something to hold onto, desperate to survive. The world around her flipped upside down, she was dangling helplessly from the monsters grip, utterly helpless, trying to grab the knife still at her side and coming up short. Then she was too scared to try and do anything at all, because now she could see who had captured her.

The Hulk’s face was curled up into a cruel sneering grin, yellowing teeth bared. He gripped her leg even tighter, and Natasha screamed as she felt more than heard something crack sickeningly. Darts of pain shot through the surly broken limb, and she was almost crying as she begged for Bruce to take over. “Banner! Please, you can’t, I’m on your side, I want to help you. You can’t kill me, no smashing, I am not your enemy!!! I promise I can help you, I will do whatever you want, whatever I can, please put me down!!! You can’t kill me, AAURGH!!” 

The primitive screech filled with pain tore itself from the Black Widow’s lips, as the Hulk tossed her into the air like a toy, and this time caught her around the waist. Her broken leg dangled heavily from the rest of her body, and Natasha hated herself for whimpering as Hulk slowly lifted her closer to his face. She stared into his eyes, beating feebly at the hand crushing the air out of her lungs. “Bruce…. I know you’re in there. You can’t do this…. Please! I don’t want to die, please don’t kill me! Bruce, BRUCE BANNER! YOU CAN’T DO THIS!!” With the last of her breather, Natasha choked out the words, “BANNER TALK TO ME DAMNIT!” 

Then the world began to go dark from lack of oxygen, and as the world spun around her sickeningly, the Hulk brought Natasha even closer to his face. His grin got even larger, if that was possible. And he uttered three words. “Hulk Smash Natasha.”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Normally at that point the dream varied, turns out there were more than a few ways that a Hulk could kill a Black Widow. But this time, inexplicably, Natasha heard someone else calling her name. “Tash! Wake up! Wake up, come on partner, I can’t take seeing you like this….. Please get up!” As Natasha heard Clint’s voice, she became aware of his hands on her shoulders, gently shaking her, helping her escape the dream. It all disappeared around her. The throbbing pain in her leg went away. She no longer saw those cruel yellow eyes prepared to murder her. As the scene disappeared like smoke around her, Natasha could finally breather again.

She shoved Clint’s hands off of her, and sat bolt upright in bed, sucking down lungfuls of air as if she would never be able to catch her breathe again. Her hair was plastered to her skull, because her entire body was drenched in sweat. She could still feel the hands of the hulk crushing her leg, wrapping around her torso, squeezing the air out from her. Now even the blankets, being confined in this bed was too much. She ripped the blanket aside, and stood up on shaky legs. She stumbled a few steps, maybe she was still a bit asleep, maybe she still thought she had to outrun a Hulk. That was what she wanted to do right now. Run. Run away from this memory, from the feeling of the Hulks hands against her skin. Run from the terror and fear, escape from the vulnerability she had just shown her partner by having this nightmare. A bit delirious from fear and sleep, adrenaline beginning to flow through her veins, Natasha actually made a move to run for the door, just wanting to escape from this moment and memory. 

But of course Clint stopped her. Grabbed her by the shoulders, just firmly enough to stop her, but gently enough so as not to set off any triggers that would push her completely into “attack kill and flee” mode. He looked like he had not slept a wink all night, but he sounded nothing but calm and soothing as he tried to calm his partner down. “Natasha. Natasha, look at me. You need to breathe, ok? Take some deep breathes. You’re ok, nothing is happening. It was just a dream, we’re here now. We are in my apartment, completely safe, no one is going to hurt you, you’re fine.” Natasha couldn’t calm down, and tried to struggle out of the archers grip. “Let GO of me Barton, just let me run, I can’t sleep again, I need to DO something NOW.” Clint pushed her down so she had to sit on the bed, and stood over her as he spoke.

“No, listen, you don’t have to go to sleep, but I am pretty sure you just woke up from a pretty nasty nightmare, and I am not letting you go run off wherever until you’ve calmed down a bit. You know I won’t make you talk about it or anything, but I will make you stay in this room until you stop looking as you are about to go kill something. So if you want to leave, you better calm down.” 

No….. Natasha didn’t want to calm down. She had to keep moving, rage against the emotions inside of her, could not let the feelings take over. Because then the fear would come, the terror of the twisted memory she had just dreamt. And then she knew she was going to cry, and there was nothing the Black Widow despised more than crying, and weakness. Especially in front of one of the only men- no, one of the only people, on this earth that she cared about. 

But now her breathing was slowing down, and Barton was sitting down next to Natasha gently rubbing her back the way she liked it. And as she accepted his touch, she felt something twist inside of her, and all of the terror came flooding back. She felt like the scared little girl she was as a single sob burst from her mouth, and before she knew it Clint was holding her in his arms, letting the woman he loved crying for as long as she needed to, never asking what was wrong, knowing too well that sometimes a bad situation could feel even worse if you made someone talk about it. Knowing Natasha would not tell him what she had dreamt if he asked anyway, that she would only talk if she wanted to.

And tonight, she didn’t. She just wanted to forget her dream, and allow herself to be weak for one night as she cried into Clint Barton. They spent the night locked together in their embrace, until finally Natasha stopped crying, and Clint suggested she try and sleep again, promising to stay awake and keep the nightmares away. It was such a stupid promise, the kind you make to a gullible young child. But eventually as Clint ran his fingers through her hair, held her in his arms, Natasha allowed herself to think that Barton really could keep the bad dreams away for a few hours. And she trusted him enough to let herself fall asleep. 

So, she did. And when she woke up hours later, Clint was still awake. Watching after her, just as he always had before. She did not tell him what the nightmare was that day, not wanting to lay more burdens on Clint when he had new troubles of his own to carry. There were still too many nights when he woke her up with nightmares, of his time as Loki’s plaything. She didn’t want to bother him with her stupid dream. But she would have to sooner or later. As the dream got even worse, realer, more terrifying. Harder to wake up from. She would have to tell Clint about her terror when she began to fear gentle Bruce Banner, finding it impossible to separate the man from the monster every time she thought of him.

But for now, she kept quiet. Glad to have had a few hours of sleep, and beyond grateful to wake up in the arms of a man who would love her, and protect her from nightmares with no questions asked. about them.

For now.  
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Woah, I feel like that got really intense, and then REALLY fluffy for Clint and Natasha!!!! I really hope you guys like this chapter, and this new story!!!!! I am so beyond excited about it right now….. Please let me know what you think!!!!!! Next chapter will be about Tony!!!!!! Maybe with some Pepper in it? Or do you want Bruce in it if he is living in Stark Tower? Let me know!!!


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn’t so surprising that Tony Stark was having bad dreams- It was surprising it had taken this long for them to start again. After he was kidnapped, when he first became Iron Man, then he had nightmares every time he closed his eyes. It was bad. But then Tony got some medication, kept himself busy, fought off the man who had practically raised him but then tried to kill him to take over the company, got distracted by the fact the arc rector in his chest was killing him, cured that, finally entered a real relationship with Pepper, and boom nightmares were cured. It was as easy as that.

But of course then he had to go help out Furious Fury, with his stupid secret rock band (He supposed it wasn’t technically a secret boy band seeing as how Spidey was a part of it) and then he almost died, when he was fighting off aliens, and now, almost a month after that mess, his stupid nightmares were back full force. Only they were even worse than they had been before- Something he had thought was impossible.

Almost always Tony knew when he was in a nightmare, and that made it even worse than when he thought the dreams were real. Because in these nightmares, he would die, be picked apart by aliens, fly up into a black hole, and not be able to escape back to earth. In these dreams he was trapped forever in outer space,a universe pressing down upon him, squeezing him down into his suit,ensuring he would be trapped for eternity. And he always knew these were just dreams, nightmares. But he couldn’t control them. And for Tony Stark, not being able to control something was one of the scariest things in the entire world.

He woke up in a cold sweat, instinctively reaching for Pepper, only to remember she was off on a business trip in LA. It was her first trip since The Incident, Tony had insisted that she take it, reassuring her that he would be fine. It was a huge business meeting, they couldn’t let the company fall apart just because he was having some trouble sleeping at night. He had reassured Pep that he would be fine on his own for a few days, and explained that he could handle a few bad dreams on his own. 

Now it was the middle of the night, he had just woken up from a nightmare that involved Loki, and an Iron Man Suit that didn’t activate before hitting the ground. And all that Tony Stark wanted, was for Pepper to be here to tell him he would be ok. 

It was fine. He was a big boy, he would get a few drinks and try to sleep again. Ok, maybe he would check out the lab first. He wouldn’t spend more than a half hour there though. An hour, tops. He needed to at least try and sleep- But he wasn’t tired. Tinkering with some new gadgets for a couple hours might be just what he needed so that he could sleep. 

______________

Soon Stark was in the tower’s main lab, making his way through his second pot of coffee, wondering if he could build something that would control a persons ability to dream. And then could he invent something to control a persons ability to choose what they dream about? Psh, who was he kidding. He was more of a mechanic, he wasn’t the kind of person who should be inventing something that could mess with a persons brain. Hmm, but maybe Banner could work something out? He was smart with bodies, and biology, and stuff that was alive. Too bad he couldn’t wake the Dr. up to ask him to come talk about this.

That would probably be a bad idea, right? To wake up someone who could explode into a giant green evil monster if rubbed the wrong way? A couple months ago Tony could have cared less about bringing the Hulk out to play. He poked Banner, teased him, prodded him with pointy things that emitted electricity, even jumped out from hiding places to try and surprise him. It all just seemed like a stupid, fun, dangerous game. 

Then the nightmares had gotten worse. They started varying from the events that had actually happened. Instead of falling from the black hole, Tony dreamed he was stuck forever in space. In these dreams instead of his reactor stopping Loki’s freaky blue glo stick, it shattered and Tony couldn’t control his actions. Instead of being a hero, in his dreams he was a villain. 

One of the most disturbing nightmares, was the one that came back with disturbing regularity. The one where he fell down from the black hole. And the Hulk, grabbed him from the sky. Only then, instead of depositing him gently on the ground, the Hulk destroyed him. That part changed occasionally. Sometimes Hulk would tear Tony’s arms off, or smash him into a puddle of metal and blood on the ground. Other times Hulk just tore Tony’s head off, other’s he swallowed Iron Man whole. 

Rationally, Tony knew these were just dreams. These things did not really happen, the Hulk saved him for god's sake. But the more often that Stark dreamed of the other guy destroying him, the more difficult it was to treat The Hulk like a joke. 

So, rather than wake up a possible sleeping monster, Tony worked alone in his lab, fighting sleep and nightmares, sketching out designs for a few dozen suits he thought he might want to make. Tony told himself he wasn’t scared of anything. He was Iron Man, he had fought off aliens, he could fight off bad dreams and puny Bruce Banner. 

But no, he didn’t have to fight off Banner. Bruce was his friend, his science buddy! The Hulk was totally separate from Bruce. And the Hulk was under Banner’s control! And he shouldn’t be scared of him anyway!

Exhausted, full of caffeine and coffee, Tony was giving himself a headache and making himself increasingly more anxious. A massive headache was forming, his heart was pounding, instead of rational thought, his brain was going around in circles,repeating impossible scenarios that were never going to happen. 

Suddenly all that Tony was thinking about was Bruce Hulking out, and destroying him. It was all his brain focused on. Tony Stark was on the verge of having a panic attack about Bruce Banner. He was sweating, struggling to take a solid breath, scrawling wild designs of Iron Man suits he wanted to make, that would fix this. 

His suits progressively became larger, stronger, more able to hold up against brute force. 

That night, Tony drew the preliminary design for the Hulkbuster armor.

Tomorrow, after some sleep, Tony would scoff at all of this not able to believe he had been so stupid and easily panicked. In the light of day he would see how idiotic his little episode had been, and tell himself this would never happen again. 

But when he looked over the sketches for a Hulkbuster armor, calmly and rationally the next afternoon, instead of throwing the papers away he saved them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE review!!!!!!! I will work really hard at getting better at writing Tony, and next chapter will be awesome Black Widow!!!


	3. Chapter 3

Natasha woke up gasping, trying to suck down lungfuls of oxygen, clutching at the knife that was already in one hand, reaching for a gun with the other. She’d had another bad dream, one of the kind that was so awful her brain wouldn’t even allow her to remember all of the details. All that she could recall was the terror and fear that was still coursing through her veins, the green monster chasing after her, the coldness in his eyes when he finally caught her. The pain coursing through her body as she realized she was helpless. Still trapped in the foggy tendrils of the dream that clung to her, Natasha reached out instinctively for Clint on his side of the bed. Instead her arms found cold blankets, and an untouched pillow.

Oh. Right. He was gone. Doing a mission in Africa, investigating some Dr. who was messing with minerals or something stupid like that. It wasn’t a very hard mission, none of his had been lately. After New York, after Loki cracked open her partners skull and took the contents of it out to play with, Clint had been under strict observation. They gave him easy missions, and made sure he never worked alone, even though it had been three months since New York. 

Clint had known Shield was just humoring him, giving him ridiculous missions, that were actually opportunities to monitor him. At first he had declined these missions, fought to get back into the actual field and do real work. But then he and Natasha had had that fight. Then he had gone to Hill, and asked for any mission that would take him away for any large amount of time. He hadn’t even told Natasha about it, she had just woken up and he’d been gone. Hadn’t even left her a letter, Hill had been the one to break the news to Natasha. 

Now The Black Widow shook her head to remove the rest of the nightmare, and stop thinking about that damn archer. She rolled out of bed and slipped the gun back under her pillow, the knife into her robe pocket. She walked into the kitchen and punched the buttons on the coffee machine to start it, and went to get ready for the day. 

Clint usually woke up earlier than her and made the coffee. She still wasn’t used to having to do it herself. 

As she got ready for the day she thought about the message that Shield had sent her late last night, and wondered what today would have in store for her. All that Fury had told her was that they were going to start paring her up with a member of the Avengers, but no one had told her who it was. 

Maybe it would be Stark. She could handle that, he was horrible and obnoxious and made degrading jokes. But she had dealt with him before, she could work with Stark.

Maybe it was Rogers. She hardly knew the man, but he was a soldier. She had worked with more than her share of those, she could handle him. 

Maybe Clint was back, and they needed Strike Team Delta, together again for another mission. That would be amazing actually, she missed Barton more than she cared to admit.

Maybe Thor was back from doing whatever God’s did, and for some reason needed her help with a mission. Was that even possible?

No. That last one was not very likely, it was much more possible that she was going to work with the man who haunted her nightmares. Ok, that wasn’t fair. Rationally Natasha knew that Bruce Banner and his green counterpart where two different people. But after months of horrible nightmares, it was hard for Natasha to separate the two. 

Natasha Romanoff was not used to letting her fears control her like this, but now even thinking of the possibility that she might have to work with Banner made her stomach flip over. She wished someone had just told her who she’d be working with. Just thinking that she might have to see Banner face to face today, would have to work with her, made Natasha want to crawl back under the covers and hide. Or better yet grab her passport and escape to one of her safe houses. 

She was almost ready now, Shield would expect her in less than an hour. She was the Black Widow, she could not let her fears control her like this. Clearly she couldn’t choose if she had nightmares or not, but at least she could decide if she was a coward who would run from what scared her, or the kind of person she had been trained to be, who could conquer her fears. 

So, Natasha forced herself to stop thinking about her nightmares. About mild mannered geniuses becoming monsters who tore her apart, about green hands pulling her apart, about her life ending in the hands of one of the only things in this world that she feared. 

She was probably going to be working with Stark, they had done it before, it made sense. Or maybe Clint was coming back.

It was stupid, but she hoped so much that Clint was coming back.  
_______________________________________________

Natasha Romanoff walked briskly through the halls of Shield, terrified newbies scattering out of her path, heads turning to catch a glimpse of the infamous Black Widow. She practically oozed confidence, at least half the people she walked past were terrified of her.

Not one of them guessed that she right now she was in the middle of battling her own personal demons. 

The entire drive here her the thoughts had bounced around her brain, painful, repetitive, manipulative. What if it’s Bruce. It won’t be Bruce. He wouldn’t hurt me. H could handle myself. It won’t be Bruce. What if It’s Clint? What if it’s Bruce? It won’t be Bruce. By the time she got to Shield Natasha was not only trying to push aside the fear growing in the pit of her stomach, she also was trying to deal with the headache forming between her eyes. 

Honestly, what was she going to do Run away? Start screaming and shooting if she saw Bruce? No, that was idiotic. She had to face him, get over these feelings and stop letting nightmares control her life. So, mentally preparing herself for facing the one who haunted her nightmares, Natasha walked confidently into Hill’s office. One confident footstep after the other not faltering, not showing fear.

Maria was sitting behind her desk, dealing with piles of paperwork, occasionally typing furiously away at her computer. Other than her, the office was empty. Natasha loudly cleared her throat, and Maria looked up instantly. “Natasha, sit down. Before we ship you guys out, I wanted to discuss the details of the mission with you. It should be pretty simple, get in, download the information, get out. You should be back within the next couple days.” Natasha nodded, fake calm, trying to slow the heartbeat pounding in her chest. Don’t show fear. Be in control. 

“So, um, you didn’t tell me who I would be working with Hill, just said it was someone from the team. We need to get information? Sounds like- Banner’s job, right?” Maria’s eyes flitted from her computer screen to Natasha’s face, and back. “What? No. The Captain’s going with you. Dr. Banner is with Stark in New York, and you know he doesn’t like when we ask for his help with missions anyway.”

On the outside Natasha looked the same. Unemotional, hiding behind her mask. But inside, she was relieved. And maybe also a little bit disappointed. Maybe it would have been nice to face her fears and end this bullshit. 

Maybe she had hoped Barton was the one she would be working with. 

“Ok, sounds good. I’ll read the debriefing packet on the plane, what time will I be leaving?” “You have half an hour before the plane leaves. Any questions Romanoff?” Natasha started to shake her head, when something seized her heart and made it throb painfully. She had to ask. 

“Is there any news on Barton?” She asked quietly, trying to pretend she could care less about the man who had left her. Maria didn’t even look up from her computer this time when she answered. Maybe because she was busy working, maybe because she knew how Natasha was feeling, and wanted to respect her privacy and not acknowledge how The Widow felt for the Archer. “We’ve been getting messages on a regular basis, the last one was four days ago. He’s safe, he isn’t hurt and he said the mission is proceeding at the expected pace.” 

Silence hung between them for a beat, unasked questions pressed against Maria’s lips. Natasha snatched the file off of Maria’s desk. “Thanks, I’ll report back when we’re done. See you later Maria.” She turned around and left without saying another word.   
________________________________________________

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah! Where’s Clint? Why would he leave Natasha? When will Bruce and Natasha meet again, AND what are the Science Bros doing now? Stay tuned!!!!!!!!!! Best review will win one of Natasha’s guns, please review ;D Come on, feed the writer!!!!


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